


Pidge is the Oldest

by luoup (ravenic)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: (even if they're short), Gen, pidge is the oldest, respect your elders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-18
Updated: 2017-01-18
Packaged: 2018-09-18 07:22:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9374192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ravenic/pseuds/luoup
Summary: What it says on the tin.The Number Five Paladin might be the littlest, but they are... not the youngest?  Chaos and confusion (and a little bit of angst) ensue.





	

**Author's Note:**

> so basically i spent half the season wondering if they were going to do the thing where the littlest one is actually the oldest. they didn’t (... yet?), but the idea stuck in my head. so here goes.
> 
> uncreative title is uncreative, i know. oh well.

“Well,” Lance grumbled, poking at his food goo, “at least I’m not the youngest.”

Pidge didn’t even look up. With one hand holding a space spork and the other typing away at something that looked like a very tiny laptop, they noted, “Yes you are.”  


Lance frowned. “Pidge. Pigeon. Buddy.” He looked almost concerned that Pidge seemed to have forgotten something as important as their ages. “You are literally the littlest in the group, both height-wise and age-wise. You are our space baby.”

“No, I’m not.” Fortunately, Pidge was too distracted by whatever they were working on to get irritated about being called, in short succession, pigeon, little, and baby. “I’m the oldest one here except for Coran – and maybe Allura, I haven’t translated Altean years to Earth years yet so I’m not sure on that.”

The entire table fell dead silent, all eyes staring at the Green Paladin in shock.

“You’re what,” said Keith flatly.

“Dude, how old even are you?” Hunk asked, food nearly forgotten in his surprise.

Pidge blinked, finally looking up from their computer. “Guys, this isn’t a big deal. And why are you even surprised, Shiro?” they added, glancing over. “Didn’t Matt tell you that we’re twins?”

The Black Paladin looked like he had been hit by a truck. “I… that makes you older than me.”

“Yep.”

“You’re older than me.”

Pidge sighed. “Yes, Shiro. Matt’s the older twin, but we’re both a year older than you. He’s older than you are, and so am I. That’s how twins work.”

“Hang on a second,” Lance burst out. “If you’re even older than Shiro – which you totally aren’t, by the way, you’re just trying to trick us and I’m not falling for it – then why were you in our year at the Garrison? Hunk’s older than me but we’re close enough to be in the same level, and Keith is barely older than I am – although I bet you just made that up to say you’re older than me, you’re totally lying Kogane and I’m going to find out about it – but I thought you were just really smart and skipped a few years to be with us, not that you got held back for like twenty years!”

“I’m not that much older than you,” Shiro muttered, his head in one hand.

Pidge sighed. They looked like they were beginning to regret ever saying anything, it was pretty obvious that they weren’t going to be allowed to finish their food goo in peace now. “Look, I told you guys about how I got banned from the Garrison because I knew that they were lying about the Kerberos mission. But they had banned a girl named Katie Holt who was the same age as Matt Holt. How better to hide than to come in as a new male student named Pidge Gundersen who was much younger?”

“But you literally look exactly like Matt,” Hunk mumbled. Nobody paid any attention.

Lance still would not be convinced. “You can’t be older! You look like a twelve-year-old, Pidge, you can’t be older than me, and there’s no way in quiznak that you’re older than Shiro!”

“You’re using quiznak wrong again,” Coran grumbled.

Pidge huffed out a breath. “I’m older than you, Lance, get over it. And I’m older than Keith, and Hunk, and Shiro. Still don’t know about Allura, and everybody knows Coran’s an old man. Get over it. I may be short, but –” they grinned wickedly, ignoring Coran’s protests about the “old man” comment, “it looks like you’re the baby of the group, Lance.”

Lance burst into squawking protests, Shiro put his other hand over his face, Keith appeared increasingly baffled by the entire event, and Hunk just gave up and went back to eating his food goo. Satisfied by the chaos they had caused, Pidge did the same, eating with one hand and typing with the other.

Later, Lance would “forget” the conversation and continue to refer to Pidge as the baby/littlest/kid/anything referring to Pidge’s size and presumed age. Pidge would snap and snarl and make Lance regret his entire life, but it was done in the way of siblings, not enemies. Keith couldn’t begin to comprehend why ages were so important and continued in exactly the same fashion as he had before. Hunk later wanted to know the specific date of Pidge’s birthday because he wanted to see if he could make a space cake and what better reason to make space cake than for space birthdays. Allura didn’t say anything, but she later spent a significant amount of time calculating Earth years versus Altean years, because although she would never admit it, she really wanted to know if the tiny human Green Paladin really was older than she was (not counting the 10,000 years she had spent asleep). Coran didn’t talk about it, but he would always sulk whenever anybody called him an old man (the 10,000 years that were discounted for Allura seemed to apply to him, for some reason, according to the Paladins).

Shiro didn’t say anything, but he knew that Pidge’s age was a bit of a tender spot, not because of their height or their often-mistaken younger appearance, but because they weren’t the only person who was exactly that age. Pidge missed their brother. Pidge missed their twin. Shiro didn’t know if Matt had told him and it had been forgotten like so many of the memories of his time spent in captivity and his life before Kerberos, or if the technician had kept that to himself. He supposed it didn’t really matter. He knew now, knew how much more painful that separation was, and although it was a little startling to realize that he was not the oldest human on the ship, he was still the leader. Earth ages didn’t change that. Pidge was like his sibling, and while he knew that no one could replace Matt, he was going to be as good of a brother as he could be.

**Author's Note:**

> haha whoops aNGST. sorry.
> 
> (also i will never get over how pidge’s “disguise” was basically “look exactly like a shorter version of my brother” and somehow got away with it. i love this tiny cranky green paladin.)
> 
> (and no, i don't know whether or not allura is older than pidge in this weird au/headtheory. i didn't get that far. think what you like on that detail.)


End file.
